Wikimedia Foundation refuses union recognition, hires union-busting law firm

I understand why factory workers or store clerks might want a union but I'd never understand why tech workers should.

I guess except the game developers but the most realistic threat vector for them is the studio shutting down, so a union wouldn't really help.

SV is a cancer. Even its charities are like this.

Remember that this is what your money funds when you donate to it...

Can someone explain what "union recognition" means, concretely?

Wikipedia's side

> [W]e believe a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board is the appropriate path forward. This process protects individual choice and ensures that any outcome reflects the collective will of those eligible to participate.

> [Jimmy Wales:] One of the problems with the process so far is that it was not secret and we have heard from some staff members that they felt pressured because the organizers would know how they decided. That isn't a great process and it goes against our movement's values quite badly to have people in a situation where they are pressured into something one way or the other.

Counter-argument

> The community response to the WMF statement has mostly been one of dismay, with fears that the Foundation will use the time gap between now and the secret ballot to discourage employees from union involvement, using union busting methods as described humorously in an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The episode is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk8dUXRpoy8, a transcript is at https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/tv-series/union-busting-last-w...

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Honestly, I'm on Wikipedia's side: there should be a true secret ballot. It should be soon and I'd be fine seeing the union win. Sure Wikipedia can use threats and propaganda in the meantime (so can Wiki Workers United), but that is less coercive than a public ballot.

Wikipedia is a money laundering outfit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CANCER

My understanding from trying to read the post is that WF isn’t happy with the process because the vote isn’t closed. It doesn’t sound completely unreasonable to me. And then they are attacked because they are working with a law firm, since a decade or so, with things that has nothing to do with union recognition thing. Apparently that law firm is known as a ”union buster”, but there’s no evidence that the law firm has been involved in the negotiations around the union. To me the argument that WF is evil and hostile to unions is weak.

I’m always careful when I see a post about how bad and evil WF is. They come up quite frequently nowadays. WF have powerful enemies, because you can still read things like climate change is real and vaccines are good for you there.

I don’t think WF is perfect, and I do think their shortcomings should be publicly criticised and discussed. But overall, I still think they are an important force for good, and will continue my monthly donations to them.

> we have heard from some staff members that they felt pressured because the organizers would know how they decided

in 2026? one would think wikipedia people pick up some self-help literature now and then and know how to fake a backbone until you grow one ...

( I have my own share of behaviors that I should have fixed when I was 11 so don't take this the wrong way )

What is this?

Hierarchical pressure? At freaking wikipedia? Fear of getting pressured into eventual compliance? At freaking wikipedia?

How the hell does a foundation select a board like that? And what are they gonna do? Send Napalm, Agent Orange, Sarin Gas?

There are union-busting law firms? What are they gonna do? Infiltrate your meetups?

I'm a bit baffled

Sigh. For me Wikipedia is synonymous with petty bickering and fiefdoms and politics. Why I am not surprised by this? It's like student unions only worse

Every leftist organization goes down that way. From progressive NGOs to even unions themselves. Unions lawfaring other unions from being created. Most famously of course the realized utopias themselves. From Russia, to China, etc

Good. Most tech unions are worthless and only accelerate outsourcing. Unions can be good though, like in construction where the work is inherently dangerous.

Which Side Are You On?

I have never understood why it's okay and not wildly illegal for anyone to interfere with unions at any level in the USA

Then again we still don't have universal healthcare and now even more million have lost health insurance due to cost so I guess it's stupid all the way down

People just keep voting against themselves. might be billionaires someday so gotta protect dubious "rights" of the ultra-wealthy just in case

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Jimmy Wales is an Objectivist supporter of Israeli policies, you can't expect much from that combination.

I'm hardly a fan of the WMF, but the headline is clickbait. The WMF has used a law firm called Jones Day for brand and trademark management for over a decade. The firm is one of the largest legal firms in the US and it also does union busting, but a) the WMF does not appear to have engaged them for that, and b) the relationship long predates the current kerfuffle.